MRSA is the acronym for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Many of the strains of the common bacterium are also resistant to other antibiotics in use today. Resistance is linked to a collection of genes carried on plasmids that are passed on from bacterium to another by conjugation. Suppose a newly discovered, chemically different antibiotic is used in place of methicillin. What would be the most likely effect on Staphylococcus aureus antibiotic resistance?
Transmission of the methicillin-resistance plasmid would gradually decrease but the plasmid would not entirely disappear from the S. aureus population.